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Commentary to the SOLEMNITY OF THE BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST – YEAR B

Fernando Armellini - Sat, Jun 5th 2021

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THE TEXT BELOW IS THE TRANSCRIPTION OF THE VIDEO COMMENTARY BY FR.  FERNANDO ARMELLINI 

A good Sunday for all.  

We all remember the restoration of Leonardo's Last Supper, which lasted about 20 years.  For centuries dust, garbage, humidity, smoke from candles, had been deposited; also steam  from the kitchen foods of the friars. A necessary cleaning task then takes place to bring back  to life the scene painted by Leonardo da Vinci. The original faces were no longer visible.  

Something similar happened at the Last Supper celebrated by Jesus in Jerusalem, 2000  years ago. That night, the Master had given a command: "Do this in memory of me" after  having shared the bread and the chalice. The community of the first century, obeying this  mandate of the Master, met on Sunday for the Lord's Supper. This was the Eucharistic  celebration of the first centuries. There were no other devotions, only the breaking of the  bread of the community, in memory of what the Lord had said during the Last Supper. They  met in private houses, they shared the Eucharistic bread at the family table, in an  environment that was not sacral. There was nothing in their celebrations that resembles the  pompous celebrations of the temple in Jerusalem. The rite was simple, festive, authentic and,  even, provocative, because primitive communities were very conscious of the meaning of the  rite they were doing. They knew very well what it meant to reach out, take and eat the bread,  drink the glass of wine and drink it with the brothers and sisters. They understood very well  the provocative gesture they made.  

Certainly, during the Last Supper the apostles had not understood the gesture made by  Jesus, but after Easter, they understood it very well. What happened for centuries? It began  to lose sight of the meaning of that celebration, of sharing bread and even the reference to the Last Supper. Many devotions began around the Eucharist, some respectable, but others  very debatable, especially when they led to eclipse the nature of this celebration. It is  significant that the Second Vatican Council, to highlight the authentic meaning of what Jesus  had done during the Last Supper, says nothing about the eucharistic devotions that were so  important for centuries.  

We know that these popular devotions, once the authentic meaning of these celebrations  has been lost, have given us saints ... and, therefore, are respectable, but we must analyze  which ones represent the authentic meaning of the Eucharist, and those that, instead,  obfuscate it a little. The text of today's Gospel puts us before the 'original painting', the first  celebration of the Eucharist, free of those incrustations that have been deposited throughout  centuries.  

It is decisive for the life of the Church to become aware of what has happened at that  Passover, in Jerusalem, and it is always at that supper to which we must refer if we want to  understand what we do when we celebrate the Eucharistic banquet on the Lord's day.  

"On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover  lamb, Jesus’ disciples said to him, "Where do you want us to go and prepare for you to eat  the Passover?" He sent two of his disciples and said to them, "Go into the city and a man will  meet you, carrying a jar of water. Follow him. Wherever he enters, say to the master of the  house, 'The Teacher says, "Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my  disciples?"'  

The text begins with a datum saying it was the first day of the Unleavened Bread. The  first day of the Unleavened Bread is the Passover, the beginning of a week in which the  Israelites abstain of everything that has leaven. The meaning was to make a cut with the past  and start a completely new reality. We know that yeast was the leftover pasta and the  Israelites, during this week, they eliminate everything that is from the past. It means that the  Passover feast begins a completely new reality. And our Eucharist is placed in this paschal  context.  

Rashi, the most celebrated medieval commentator of the Bible, said that the Torah  should not start with the book of Genesis, but with the 12th chapter of the Exodus, because  chapter 12 speaks is the origin of the people of Israel. 'We have begun to exist with Easter,  with the liberation of Egypt. And the time of our freedom as a people has begun.' And every  year the Israelites celebrate this memory of the beginning of their existence as a people.  

We Christians, also remember our Easter. The decisive advent of our history. It is the  point of reference of the community of disciples. And in the Eucharist we celebrate our origin,  our birth because, as Christians, we were born on Easter. Just as the Israelites remember their  history, the liberation of Egypt, we remember, in the celebration of the Eucharist, the  beginning of our history as disciples of Christ with the Passover. The unleavened bread: it is  the beginning of a new reality.  

For the people of Israel, the unleavened bread has an important meaning, because, even  now, the night before Easter, the whole family must take the candlelight and go to all the  corners of the house to look for even the smallest sign of yeast to throw it into the fire. The  book of the Talmud, which is a sacred book for the Hebrews, says that the yeast that is  eliminated, is not only a material yeast, but is a very important symbol for the people of Israel.  

It means that everything that is bad must be removed; everything that is slavery. And the  book of the Talmud specifically says that it is the evil instinct that dwells in the person who should be thrown out. Therefore, arrogance, rudeness, vulgarity, hardness of the heart,  hardness of the face, shame-=all this was represented in the leaven that must be expelled,  because at Easter the Israelites celebrate the beginning of a completely new world, the  beginning of freedom. And the one who lives slave of these passions is not free.  

It is also the meaning of Easter for Christians. The yeast that must be eliminated ... Paul,  in the first letter to the Corinthians, in chapter 5—it seems that this letter was written  precisely around Easter—says, "Take off the old yeast to be a new dough, because you  yourselves are the unleavened bread ..." (1 Cor 5:7). As Christians are unleavened, they are  pure. The text we have heard tells us about the preparation of that dinner that we must  understand well. Also, our celebrations must be well prepared, not only outwardly, but  inwardly prepared because we must internalize well the meaning of what we are going to do,  so that it is not a hypocritical or meaningless sign, a ritual that later does not have incidence  in our life. We must prepare it well.  

Jesus went to celebrate that supper. There is an aura of mystery in this preparation,  precisely because Jesus did not want to be taken to death, at the hands of those who wanted  to get him out of the way before this meal. For Jesus it was very important to celebrate this  meal with his disciples. He knew that Judas was planning to deliver him. Judas has not allowed  himself to be converted to the new world, to the new man, and remained tied to his old  convictions. His dream was the same as that of his people, the dream presented by the  spiritual guides of Israel. Judas did not let himself be converted. He saw in Jesus a dangerous  person who should be taken out of the way. Judas did not do this for money ... that came  later, it was not the money that interested him ... Judas was worried because this Jesus  dispensed with many of the religious conceptions of his people. That's why he decided to  deliver him. The Gospels never says that Judas "betrayed" Jesus. It says that he 'delivered'  him.  

What did Jesus say to two of his disciples, John and Peter? They must prepare that room,  symbol of what our eucharistic celebration also demands. And what signal does it give them  to recognize who should take them to the house where they should do this preparation? A  man carrying a jug of water. The water could only be extracted from the only possible place,  the pool of Siloam. Archaeologists have discovered a stairway that came down from Mount  Zion, from the upper part of the city to the pool of Siloam. Jesus has come down that stair  that night ... it is moving to observe that stairway that Jesus has walked barefooted....  

These two disciples had to observe this man who came out of the pool of Siloam with a  bucket of water on his head. How did they recognize him? Very simple, because no man would  carry a bucket of water on his head. Men carried water on their shoulders. Therefore, it was  very easy to recognize this man, because this is what women did ... a humble service....  

A very important message: the distinctive sign that guides us towards the authentic  Eucharistic celebration, the one that introduces us to the authentic meaning of the Eucharist,  is the one who becomes a servant, who does even the work of women without feeling  humiliated. The one who chooses the last position; the one who does not feel humiliated  when kneeling before those who need him.... This takes us to the authentic meaning of the  Eucharist; it introduces us into this room.  

Let's listen to what these two disciples should to prepare that dinner.  

"Then he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready. Make the preparations  for us there." The disciples then went off, entered the city, and found it just as he had told  them; and they prepared the Passover." 

The evangelist wants to emphasize the characteristics the two disciples have prepared  on the room for the Lord's Supper. The first characteristic: This room is in the upper plane.  The first generation of Christians, the community guided by James, the brother of the Lord,  one of the family of Jesus, continued to celebrate the Eucharist on the Lord's day in that room,  on the upper plane.  

Recently, archeology has brought to light a synagogue of that time in the place where the  Hebrews remember the place of David's tomb. It was not David's tomb, but an old synagogue  that had been used by the first Christians. What did these first Christians guided by James do  there? They celebrated the liturgy of the Word in this synagogue then, at the upper room,  they celebrated the Eucharistic banquet. Why did the evangelist indicate that it was in the  upper room?  

As a chronicle it does not matter much, but if this detail is noted, it means that he wants  to leave a message for us, for our Eucharistic celebrations. We know that in the early Church  they tried to celebrate the Eucharist, even externally, at the upper level. Recall, for example,  we read that Paul celebrates the Eucharist in Troade at the upper room, when Eutychus falls  from the window (Acts 20:9). We are not interested in the material aspect; we are interested  in the message that the evangelist wants to give us for our celebrations today. It must be held  on the upper floor, not on the ground floor. If the disciples want to celebrate an authentic  Eucharist, they should go to a higher place. In the lower place are the people who lead a life  guided by a logic that is not that of the higher plane. To celebrate an authentic Eucharist  requires rising above the criteria and values that the world has.  

The Christian despises nobody, does not judge anyone, but he must know that, in that  place, in the upper room, one needs to reason and behave in a completely different way. It is  the opposite way to the scale of values of the lower part. The scale of values of the lower part  it is turned upside-down in the upper room. Down, the one who serves, is the poor, the one  who should bow down in front of the bosses who give orders ... because they are inferior,  they do not count at all. But on the higher plane this person is very important, worthy of  honor. In the lower part are the bosses, the dominators, the arrogant ones, those who can  raise their voices and to silence everyone. These are the successful people. But on the higher  plane, these are the failures.  

For the Eucharist to be authentic, it must be celebrated by people who have made a  conversion, a change, a turning of the scale of values that guides their lives. Second feature:  The room is large. Not only in the material aspect. It means that the authentic Eucharist must  be celebrated by a welcoming Church, which has a big heart, which is a place of communion.  Remember the parable of the banquet, in the Gospel of Luke, when the servant, the slave, is sent out three times to fill the room; and the last time he is sent out he is told: "Go out to the  highways and country lanes, and force people to come in, to ensure that my house is full" (Lk  14:23). This is the big room. The Church is welcoming.  

Also, the one who has had a disorderly life, the abandoned, the ragged 'lazarus' ...  everyone is welcome in this room. And they are not judged but loved by the brothers and  sisters. The community is not scandalized by the brothers and sisters who did not had an  exemplary life. In this room nobody is judged. Nobody gossips. In this room the errors  committed are not reproached. Those who want to enter this room are accepted as they are,  only that they understand what is expected of their lives once they have approached the  eucharistic banquet. 

In our Church today the message is one of openness of the heart, because in this room  we all enter: the weak, the fragile and all who want to participate in this Eucharistic banquet.  Third feature of the room: it is arranged with divans and arranged for supper, for Easter, for  the celebration of freedom, of victory, of life. Easter is the festival of freedom.  

How did the Hebrews celebrate Easter? Not sitting but lying down. They had adapted to  the customs of the Greeks and the Romans who, in turn, had copied it from the Persians. To  celebrate victory, freedom, they ate lying down. It was a very uncomfortable position,  because they lay down on the pillows and then put the left elbow on a cushion and the right  hand was used to feed on the table that was in the middle. A very uncomfortable position,  but it indicated that the person was not afraid of anyone, he was free. And the Hebrews had  adopted this use and on Easter night they celebrated dinner lying like this.  

It is significant that dinner is prepared so that people express that they are free people.  They must have left all their slavery on the ground floor, otherwise it does not make sense to  participate in this banquet. If they are still slaves of the attachment to money ... the attention  is only in the accumulation ... then one is not prepared for freedom—one is still a slave; and  if they still pursue their interests, their own selfishness, they are still slaves; if they cultivate  rancor in their hearts they are not free; you are also a slave when there are resentments that  are motivated by pride because it contradicts the great image you have of yourselves. You are  fragile; accept your weakness because Christ loves you as you are. If you are a slave to grudges  you are not free to celebrate the Eucharist. If you are a slave of emotional blackmail, you are  not free.  

And, worse, if you are still a slave to the image of a severe God, how will you be able to  celebrate the feast of gratuitous love? If you are the slave of whims, of vices, of your habits  that, not only do not do you good, but you will not be in a good mood to celebrate the  banquet. We are aware that we all enter in this room while we are not completely free, but  we must be aware that that celebration wants to take us to freedom, of everything that does  not allow us to be true people, to be like Christ.  

Let us now listen to what happened during that Last Supper:  

"While they were eating, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, gave it to them, and  said, ‘Take it; this is my body.’ Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, and  they all drank from it. He said to them, ’This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed  for many. Amen, I say to you, I shall not drink again the fruit of the vine until the day when I  drink it new in the kingdom of God.’ Then, after singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount  of Olives."  

Let's try to understand well what happened during that last supper. Jesus knows he is  going to die. He is aware that his life comes to an end. We are wondering, what is most  worrying in his heart at that moment? Could it be that the disciples kneel to worship him?  Certainly not! There is something else in his heart. He wants that the new world he started  will not end with his death. He wants his disciples committed to give continuity to the new  man he introduced into the world. Not the man-beast who wants to dominate over others,  but the manservant, the lamb. He wants a world to be born where people be true, that they  be lambs, not beasts. And he wants to put a sign in front of his disciples to indicate this project  of a new man that he has carried out in his life.  

What sign is that? At a certain moment, "while they were having dinner, he took bread",  note well: it does not say 'the' bread ... as if it were a high host ... NO. He extends the hand and takes the bread that was on the table. What is this sign that Jesus is choosing? In the  Semitic conception, bread means everything that is necessary for life, the basic food, symbol  of all other foods. Eating bread means feeding.  

When the person is hungry, it is not enough to just fill the stomach. The person is hungry  for many things to fulfill his life in fullness: he hungers for love, for health, for knowing, needs  to be accepted, also of being forgiven, hungers for justice, he also needs a caress ... All these  needs must be satisfied so that life be fully human.  

And what does Jesus do? After having taken of the bread, he pronounces the blessing. So  let's keep in mind, this meaning of everything the person needs for life. It is the food for a  complete life. Then he will talk about wine because the person does not need only what he  feeds materially his life, but of what is symbolized in the wine: the joy that is necessary for a  full and complete human life. He pronounces the blessing. To Bless means to recognize that  everything that is on the table, everything that feeds our life, comes from the Lord. It is a free  gift of his kindness. We recognize that we do not own this food of life. As I said before, it is  not only bread that satisfies hunger, but all food that allow us to live a fully human life.  

The goods are not ours; they are all of God. It is the new interpretation of the goods of  the earth that can no longer be the object of possession and accumulation. They are gifts of  the love of the Creator God, therefore, gifts that must be shared with the recipients who need  these gifts that are not ours, that belong to God. On the ground floor ... they are not God's  gifts, they are the food of life that some have monopolized and that then begin to negotiate,  to make those in need to pay for it. This is the way people relate on the 'ground floor'.  

The one who enters into the evangelical conception, which is Christ's, that of the ‘upper  room, considers all goods not as owner but as a gift of the gratuity of God's love. Gifts that  must be shared. We are well done-we are made to create love, if we were self-sufficient, we  will satisfy each one of our hunger without relating to our brothers and sisters, and love would  not be born. Instead, we have been made to take care of the gifts of God and in need of the  gifts that other brothers and sisters have.  

In this exchange of gifts humanity is realized as God wanted from the beginning of  creation: that of children who love each other, they exchange love, and this love is the life He  has given us. What are bread and wine? They are the signs that Jesus has sought to present  his entire history; they are, first, fruits of the earth. We know that in the bread and in the wine  the energies of the soil are concentrated (the minerals), and then, inside, there is the energy  of the sky (the rain, the wind, the light, the heat, the sun's rays). But in bread does not enter  only this. Bread does not grow in the field, wheat grows. The wine does not grow, the grape  grows. What is it that makes up the bread? Not only what nature gives us, but the work of  man. Jesus has not looked for raw products from the trees. He has searched as a sign of all  his history the place where the work of man enters.  

In the bread are concentrated the fatigue of the people, the work of transforming  creation and making it usable for tour life. Let's think ... during dinner, around the table,  where there is bread.... What do the people sitting at that table see in that bread? Imagine a  family from Nazareth, like the family of Jesus: the father, the older children, sitting at the  table,: they saw in this bread their fatigue, their sweats ... when they had plowed, planted ...  The mother saw her weariness because she had crushed that grain, she had made flour, she  had cooked it in the oven ... And also the little boy saw his work in that bread, because he had  to fetch water from the fountain. I 

n Nazareth, from the house of Joseph to the fountain are 900 meters. The children also  saw their own work in that bread. Everyone has contributed for the food of the family, everything each one had, to everyone's joy. Everything was freely put in common. In the  family one does not pay for the work that each one does according to the capacity, the  strength that have been donated by God. They put everything in that food so that everyone  can feed and enjoy. The blessing recognizes that everything is a gift from God, it is a hymn to  the gratuity of God, and it is a proposal to live in the gratuity. The pagans buy, sell, feel  owners—this happens on the ground floor. But on the upper room is the disciple of Christ  who knows he is not the owner and is only an administrator of the goods that the creator has  put in his hands to create love.  

What else did Jesus do during the Last Supper? He broke the bread so it could be shared.  The first meaning of Eucharistic communion is the awareness that we are guests of God. We  are not rivals around a food that we must monopolize ignoring the needs of others. This is  not the conception of the one who has assimilated God's plan, that has been revealed in Jesus  of Nazareth and that is represented in the sign of this Eucharistic banquet. Then he has  donated it. Giving it is the logical consequence. The gift received is to be shared.  

And, Jesus says: 'Take and eat, this is my body.' What does this expression mean? For a  Semite, the body does not indicate muscles, bones, blood ... NO. The 'body' is the person that  he or she carried out throughout his or her life story. Let me give you an example. When I  observed my father who was 75 years old, a person who had worked and suffered ... he had  been in the concentration camp ... when I looked at him I saw all his history ... all the life he  had lived ... also the injustices he had suffered, the service to the brothers and sisters he had  offered. That was the 'body', the person with all his history.  

When Jesus says: "This is my body", he presents his whole story in this sign. "I became  bread - 'this is my body' means: “this is me." Note that it is not the 'bread' that transforms  itself into Jesus .... In the past it was thought that with the consecration we would bring Jesus  down from heaven to enter that bread. NO. It is Jesus who presents his whole story saying:  "Do you want to know who I am? I am bread. All my life is transformed into food for life, a  source of joy for the brothers and sisters. "This is me: take and eat." "Take" – it is the first  order that Jesus gives. To 'take' it is the conscious gesture of the one who accepts this  proposal that Jesus makes us.  

What does to 'eat' mean? Eating means assimilating. When we take that bread, we eat  that bread, we make a gesture which means: 'I want to assimilate your donated life story'.  This is the only meaning of the Eucharist. And it must be put well in evidence. We recognize  that people have been blinded by many devotions....  

We must take it to its provocative meaning. Take and eat that bread means to respond  to the proposal of life that Jesus makes you and this is: if you want to join your life to my life  given for others, 'Take and eat'. Comply with this sign, and let it be an authentic sign and not  a rite that maybe he has lost the meaning. It is interesting that Pope Paul VI said: 'When you  present that bread, say: happy those invited to the wedding of the Lamb.' Eating that bread  is a proposal of love: 'do you want to join your life to mine?’  

This is the meaning of the Eucharistic gesture that we approach on the Lord’s Day. We  have understood that 'touching that bread' means assimilating his life. This is his body, that  then becomes our body; and thus, in the celebration of a Eucharist, it must be seen the life of  Christ donated through our life, because we have united our lives with his. Then the chalice.  We know what the meaning of blood for an Israelite is life. Jesus invites us to drink from that  cup, to drink of his life, to welcome his life in us, to let that Spirit that has animated all his  history and has made him donate everything, until the last moment, becomes in us the acceptance of his life, of his project of love. And everyone will drink. Nobody is excluded.  Everyone has accepted his proposal.  

I want to conclude with a question that I am often asked: "Is it not enough to celebrate  once in our life this Eucharist in which we unite ourselves to Christ? Why, every week, on the  Lord's Day, do we celebrate this gesture?" Some even say that it is a useless gesture, a waste  of time. To this question I give two answers. The first and most important: we participate in  the Eucharistic celebration, first, to become aware that we people loved for free. To enter  this logic of unconditional and free love of God, to feel loved, just as we are. Even if we are  fragile, sinners, still we know that we are loved and that we have been filled with free gifts to  share them freely with joy with the brothers and sisters. If it were a waste of time, when you  become aware of this love, then it is also a waste of time every moment when the spouses  come together to connect with their life choices and to enjoy their reciprocal love. It is the  moment when we are happy to feel loved by God. A second reason I present it with an  example. When we go to the beach ... we lose time. We sunbathe and do nothing. But we are  convinced that it is not a waste of time, because we tan, we embellish ourselves, we become  stronger, we relax, then we will have fewer diseases during the winter. We have not wasted  our time. We have allowed ourselves to be tanned by that sun. To participate in the  Eucharistic celebration is to make a beauty cure. To stand before the sun that is Christ, and if  we do not sunbathe at least once a week, we get ugly; soon we lose the color of his gratuitous  love.  

We put ourselves, every Sunday, in front of his word and of his person who has donated  his life. We are confronted with his unconditional love, and we remain for a little while under  these rays of his testimony of love. This healing removes many wounds caused by our egoism,  our weakness, our pride and makes us more willing, more prepared, more able to love.  

I wish everyone a good Sunday and a good week. 

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